Crabs Feel Pain

by Michael Y. Park

on 01/21/13 at 05:00 PM

You know how whenever you boil
lobsters or crabs how one person gets all worried about whether you're
being cruel or not? And you know how someone else chimes in that that's
OK, they don't actually feel pain?

Scientists found that crabs in their study avoided situations that were likely to result in electric shocks even when running such a risk offered rewards like an otherwise perfect hiding spot. Crabs that hadn't experienced the electric shocks continued using those same hiding spots.

So since the always-flimsy "they don't feel pain" argument seems to have been debunked, the question now is whether this alters the way we cook our crustaceans. Over at TIME, confessed lobster lover Bryan Walsh even questions whether we ought to be eating them at all, quoting from David Foster Wallace's essay "Consider the Lobster," which wonders whether future generations will look on our carnivorous eating habits as we now do the cruel entertainments of the ancient Romans.

Of course, you could simply insert a blade into the lobster's brain before boiling it. Options for crabs include microwaving (which seems like it'd be just as painful) or popping off its head (see the video below).

Or you could just acknowledge that, if you're a meat eater, you're benefiting from the death and probable pain of another once-living creature, and respect that that's just a part of the big circle of life.

What do you think? Will the news that crabs feel pain change the way you cook seafood?

Alton Brown's putting the lobster in the freezer for a few minutes before dispatching it seemed humane; though I suppose the only reliable authority is that of the lobster, and he's not talking.

Corky6
01:02:23 PM on
01/22/13

I think the cost of approx $4,000. for the Crustastun machine is very prohibitive for the average home cook. I've read very good things about this machine but it won't be in my kitchen anytime soon because of the pricing. I would think this is more geared toward resaurants.

Crustastun
05:00:26 AM on
01/22/13

Crustastun is the first electro-stunner designed to compassionately kill lobsters and crabs. It stuns a lobster or crab unconscious in less than half a second and kills whilst unconscious in 5 seconds. Crabs and lobsters now no longer have to be cooked or butchered alive and shouldn't be treated as they corrently are. www.crustastun.com

Corky6
01:45:13 AM on
01/22/13

I had at first thought crabs and lobsters were squealing in pain when dropped in water but felt a bit better when I was told it was air escaping their shells. I still get a little queasy thinking that they may feel pain but was told if I still had doubts, stick them in the freezer to put them in a comatose state first.

leckrich
10:51:44 PM on
01/21/13

How we choose to ready a portion of our diet for consumption does not matter. Humans are omnivores -- or that is as we were meant to be. Dinosaurs, on the other hand, were vegetarians. Some animals are strict carnivores. Those that are omnivores have the greatest survival rates. While I love both meat and vegetables, this fact alone will keep me from being so insecure as to eliminate a part of my diet -- not even for "meatless Monday".

spicerack
09:20:05 PM on
01/21/13

Oh and I'm pretty sure the crabs and lobsters don't flinch or feel bad when they rip the heads off of their pray (fish, worms, molluscs, etc) and eat it still moving... The circle of life

spicerack
09:16:22 PM on
01/21/13

What do you think the cow feels when its clunked upside the head, or the chicken when its head is cut off, or any other animal that we kill to consume? While boiling seems cruel (and I for one don't even eat lobster) I would imagine that the boiling water would very quickly denature all the proteins in the lobster/crabs body quickly, hence destroying pain receptors, modulators and neurons in general. Slicing the brain in half however still leaves peripheral nerves intact (assuming that lobsters have them....I'm a little rusty on my crustacean neuroanatomy) which would emit pain even after the brain has been sliced in two. So, in my opinion (as a medical student and lover of neuroscience) I might go with the boil option if I had to pick between the two.